1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital electronics, and more specifically, to computer-based programming tools and software for handheld digital electronic devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Protecting computer software from misuse has been a concern since computers were first developed. One form of misuse, software piracy, normally only results in lost revenue for software developers and publishers, but can have more significant consequences. Software piracy and misuse has conventionally been fought with various protection schemes employing encryption or activation methods.
A typical software protection scheme validates a user password before enabling and executing a software application. This type of scheme is useful for database access where different users have different access rights. Another conventional protection scheme common with commercial software applications is a hardware key. Hardware keys can take the form of a CD being inserted into a CD drive for protecting a home-user application, or a specialized hardware lock (dongle) used for protecting high-end professional applications. Besides resulting in inconveniences to users, typical protection schemes are easily worked around and circumvented.
When applied to programming software used to program electronic devices, such as programming tools used by service providers to program mobile phones, typical software protection schemes offer few advantages. First, these schemes are easily defeated, and it can generally be assumed that any individual who desires to obtain such protected programming tools can obtain them and negate the protection scheme. Second, these schemes simply passively protect the software programming tools from access or unauthorized copying, and offer no further means of protecting against actual misuse while the programming tools are functioning. This is a particularly notable shortcoming in the case of mobile phone cloning.
Once a protection scheme for a set of programming tools has been defeated, programming a mobile phone is straightforward. Parameters can be sent to the phone indiscriminately. If these parameters contain errors, the mobile phone may operate incorrectly or even cease to operate. When these parameters are stolen or duplicated a mobile phone can be cloned. Thus, the capabilities of these programming tools need to be protected to safeguard the functionality of individual mobile phones and entire mobile phone networks.
Conventionally, programming tools for mobile phones or other electronic devices have been protected against unauthorized copying and use by conventional software protection schemes, such as the hardware key or password validation schemes. The disadvantages of these schemes require that an improved method be developed.